Sonic Team's RAcaseal texture trick

[Barubary6]

You know how RAcaseals have some costumes that are physically different from the others (most notably the HUcaseal-like "bee" costume)? At first glance, it looks like Sonic Team created some extra models that don't have the skirt or the shoulder guards.

But it's not true. What Sonic Team actually did was create textures for those pieces that have an "alpha" value of 0, so that they are simply invisible! The skirt is still there, you just can't see it >_< .

This was confirmed recently from the texture data on Xbox...

-- Barubary

[HUnewearl_Meira]

It's taken this long for that information to be figured out? I'd gone on that sort of assumption since I first saw the first picture of that costume...

[heyf00L]

So then would that cause the double transparency "glitch" to occur? I mean when something transparent is behind your invisible clothes would it not show up?

[anwserman]

Yes it would, and its not exactly a glitch per say its how 3D graphics work in general. For transparency to work, the object with transparency - this instance would be the HUcaseal model - needs to be drawn last on the screen, especially if there are objects behind it (such as your character standing behind another character). Its not a flaw persay but thats how 3D graphics work - its called rendering order and with transparent objects, it can turn into a pain in the ass. If the transparent objects are drawn last, then you see the model. If it isn't - or if part of the model missing - then you know that the model was rendered after the HUcaseal's model.

Another example would be the mothmant nest. Run around the nest, and look at the green stalks going into the ground. If you look carefully at some of the sides, you can see transparent edges around the vines - you should really see the nest through those edges, but you see the ground behind it. Thats because the portion of the nest that should have been seen was rendered after the part with the transparency - thus making parts of the nest invisible.

Sorry if I slaughtered this explanation.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: anwserman on 2003-10-30 13:18 ]</font>

[Nohra]

Another fun thing with 3d programs is when polygons aren't drawn at all (i.e., from the inside of a model, or on the side of a gun that you never see in an FPS game). That kind of thing is mostly done to cut back on resource hogging (it really, really improves framerate, believe you me). Besides, you're not SUPPOSED to see that. ^-^ (If you want to see it in action and you have Half-Life, grab the Half-Life Model Viewer and pop open the MP5/M4's model.)

Of course, the way PSO draws rooms and such, if your camera gets stuck in a wall, you're effectively blind until you get away from it.

[CrimsonII2]

well, this is something i never knew, I had always been under the belief that those few outfits just didn't have those parts, hehe guess not, and that is quite a pain in pso when your camera gets stuck behind a wall